2nd Web Assignment

Cultural Internet or Internet Culture?
Sara Collins
A wise professor of internet studies once said, “The internet is a wonderful tool that no one has quite figured out what to do with”. This statement, while simple, says everything you need to know about internet culture today. The internet is a tool originally created to share physics papers, but which has now been repurposed to allow people to watch movies, follow their favorite sports teams, find a place to eat, do research, express their thoughts, talk to friends, meet spouses, trade stocks… The list is almost endless, but one of the biggest uses of the internet today is by generation Y, We are the social networkers.

Wikipedia, social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes", which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige(all links included).” Social networks are places on the internet where people can share their thoughts, creations, lives, and much more. It is an interesting notion that through one user-generated definition a person can click on seven different links to other user-generated content, which will in turn lead to other sites and other information and sometimes to other media altogether. Interplay of content across multiple media platforms and the nature of people to jump from thing to thing is what Henry Jenkins describes as convergence culture. Social networks are the home of convergence culture.

Anyone born after 1980 can tell you about at least one social network that he or she has belonged to. There is Youtube, Facebook, Myspace, Match.com, LiveJournal, Flickr, and this author’s personal favorite, Phonezoo. Phonezoo is a relatively new site that allows users to interface and share pictures, ringtones, and games. The great thing about the site is users can use music from their own computer to cut thirty-second snippets of songs and create ringtones. The site will then send a multimedia message to the user’s phone, which can then be made into a ringtone or alert notification, or whatever else the person wants it to be. Phonezoo users can also download and share pictures or games that they have found on the internet or created on their own computer.

Phonezoo creates the opportunity for a perfect convergence culture on the internet. For instance: one user wants to make their favorite Black Keys song into a ringtone. The Black Keys do not have ringtones available on the internet so the user goes to Phonezoo and makes one. While walking around Wal-Mart the phone goes off and a customer hears it. They want to know who the artist is because the song has a great unique sound. After learning that is was Black Keys, the customer buys the Brothers album before leaving Wal-Mart. He likes the album so much, that he decides to go to a torrent downloader site like Vuze, and download the whole Black Keys discography. Then he picks a new song and takes it to Phonezoo to create his own ringtone.

Convergence culture means information can cross media boundaries and go from one source to another and be shared by many. Phonezoo provides a platform for the ideal convergence culture using the internet, cell phones, mp3 players, and traditional media.

While Phonezoo allows for a free exchange of really cool music and pictures, the site also condones user activism. Many users like the site because they can get free ringtones and pictures for their phone, but the site uses pirated music and barely fringes on copyright laws. Ethan Zuckerman did a talk at ETech in 2008. Zuckerman’s theory is that for a site to work it has to be able to support activism. When a site supports passive activism, it is even better. Many users of Phonezoo are not on the site to spite the music industry for having the gall to charge $.99 a download, they are there because it enables them to create their own ringtones. Now if the music industry decides to shut down Phonezoo for copyright infringement, another site just like it will pop up and users will flock to it, because they want the freedom to create.

The cycle of establishment shutting down one thing, only to have the public find a way around it is exactly what Zuckerman describes in his talk. Social networks across the board allow for social activism in one way or another. Some sites allow for copyright infringement, some allow for public outcry, some allow artists who can’t get a gallery to show the world what others thought wasn’t worthy.

While no one has figured out exactly what to do with the internet, this author feels that the use of social networks is a great use for now. Some industries are suffering from their lack of internet savvy, but it is a small price to pay for the possibilities of the internet culture. If one person gets to sell their artwork outside of a gallery, one artist can sell his records without a label, or one business can run internationally out of a one-bedroom apartment, social networking is worth it.